Tips for Traveling in Europe

NOTE: My blog has moved! View this post on my new blog at: http://www.mandylivinglife.com/tips-for-traveling-in-europe/

While planning my trip to Europe I read a countless number of websites for tips and advice. I enjoy planning the logistics of a trip almost as much as the trip itself, so I greatly enjoy this kind of thing. Since getting back from my trip I've had a lot of people ask me if I have any advice and/or things that I'd do differently, so I thought I'd compile a list. It'll probably benefit me when I plan my next trip more than it will benefit anyone else, but here it is.

There are a lot of common travel tips that you can find online, but these are some less obvious ones as well as the ones that really stuck out to me.

 

Money
Have a chip & pin credit card - I wish I had paid more attention to these prior to my trip. All of the card readers in the UK are the type where you hold your credit card's chip up to the reader instead of swiping your magnetic strip through it. You can still swipe, but it's apparently an uncommon thing considering how many cashiers were surprised when I wanted to. I also wasn't able to rent a bike in Dublin because the self-serve kiosk only worked with cards that have a chip in them.

Make sure your credit card has a 0% foreign transaction fee - Even though my credit card wasn't a chip & pin card, it did serve me well and I used it whenever I was paying for larger amounts (like hostels or transportation) so that I didn't have to keep large amounts of currency on me at all times.

Get a Schwab debit card - I did my research before leaving on my trip and thought that I'd be able to find ATMs that were partnered with my bank (which is Bank of America) and thus avoid the ATM fees. It turned out to be more difficult than I thought to locate the correct ATMs when I wanted them.
Schwab has a debit card that waives all ATM fees worldwide and I wish that I'd had one while on my trip. I already had a brokerage account with them, so it was a piece of cake to add the debit card. This will be my debit card for all future travels.


Lodging
Plan all of your lodging in advance - This might not be as big of a deal for some people, but for me I only wanted to stay in all female rooms at hostels, and those weren't always available last minute. I don't regret booking any of them in advance and it was one less thing to worry about during the trip. Some people would say that not having reservations creates more flexibility, but I'd rather not spend my travel time trying to book a hostel.


Use that smartphone
Other than bringing your passport and money, the most important thing you can bring with you is your smartphone. If you don't have one, borrow a tablet or an old smartphone from someone. I never bothered with getting a data plan while I was there, instead I just used wifi the entire time and it worked out well.

Starbucks is the gold standard of free wifi - Most places, even fast food joints, will have wifi. However, a lot of them require sending a code via text message in order to use their wifi. Since I didn't have a data plan and thus didn't have a local phone number, I could never use the wifi at those places. Most mom & pop shops will have open wifi and every Starbucks I went to (or stood nearby) had wifi that was easy to get onto.

Text US numbers using Google Voice - It's free to get a Google Voice phone number and you can turn on texting for that number for free as well. Having this meant that I was able to text people at home whenever I had a wifi connection. I did this from both my computer and my phone. Even with a data plan, I'd still text using this method to save myself from texting from an international number.

TripIt - I love this app. It takes all of your reservations (flights, hotels, tours) and organizes them into chronological order in a really easy to view fashion. I don't use TripIt for shorter trips, but my trip to Europe involved numerous different flights and hotel bookings, so having those reference numbers handy on my phone was great.
I used the website as I planned the trip, and then the app on my phone to view the info during the trip. The app downloads everything so you'll have access to your confirmation numbers offline and it brings up the one you're most likely to need presently when you open the app.

Spotify - This isn't really travel advice, but I'll throw it in there. I use Spotify on a daily basis and pay the $10 a month to have Premium. This allows me to download music to my phone, so I loaded up my phone with music before the trip and used it the entire time without ever needing an internet connection. Plus I could create new playlists on the go to fit my mood.

Currency converter app - If you don't enjoy doing math in your head, having one of these apps already downloaded to your phone can be handy.


Navigating
Use Google Maps offline feature - Using the Google Maps app on your phone you can download chunks of maps to your phone so that they work in offline mode. You won't be able to search for places on the map without an internet connection, but you can zoom around on the map and use the GPS on your phone to pinpoint where you are if you get confused. I always downloaded enough of each city to cover the areas that I planned to go to.

Have step-by-step directions for travel days - I had a note in Evernote the had my own step-by-step directions from each airport/train station/whatever to the hostel that I was staying at. I did this for my own piece of mind, but I was grateful that I always had an easy plan of attack upon arriving at a new place. When you have all of your luggage with you is not when you want to be confused about which bus to get on. I also printed a hard copy just in case something happened to my phone, and I kept that copy in the outside pocket of my backpack. Use the advice on the hostel's actual website in addition to Google Maps to help make the best step-by-step directions.

Packing Tips
Use packing cubes - I used these for the first time on this trip and I'm in love with them. I know they probably sound over the top to most people, but I will never go on another long trip without them. They're particularly useful for trips where you move from place to place a lot. I have the eBags ones and I like using multiple of the small size instead of using the medium or large ones, but that's just me.

Bring a toiletry bag with a hook - Most hostels don't have a lot of space to set your stuff down, so being able to hang your bag onto something is handy and keeps your bag from ending up on the (potentially wet) floor.


Misc
Keep a daily log of what you did that day - I quickly found everything blurring together in my mind, so at the end of each day I'd create a note in Evernote and jot down a quick list of what I did that day. It's fun to look back on and helpful for scrapbooking/blogging after the trip.


If You're Not An Idiot
Do buy an actual waterPROOF jacket, not a water resistant one. I'm serious people, this one is important.

{Northern Ireland} Belfast

The last city in my trek around Ireland was Belfast, which is actually up in Northern Ireland. When I initially started exploring my options for places to visit in Europe I was a bit clueless about the history of Northern Ireland. In fact, I didn't even realize that it is actually a different country from Ireland. Clueless me. When it eventually came time to make firms plans and actually book my flights, I decided to include two days in Northern Ireland. I almost scratched the whole idea after talking to a co-worker from Galway who warned me that going to Belfast in July might be a bad idea because of political issues that were going to be happening around that time. As the trip approached I was prepared to cancel my flight from Belfast to Edinburgh and just fly out of Dublin if need be. But in the end, I got a green light from my co-worker and Belfast stayed on my list of destinations.

Needless to say, I was a tiny bit apprehensive when I headed to Belfast, but in the end I'm really glad that it was a stop during my trip.

My cheapest option for getting to Belfast from Dublin ended up being a train, and since trains aren't a common thing in my everyday life, I was all over that. And this wasn't just any old train like in England, this train actually gives you an assigned seat and there's a little card with your name on it above your seat. I'd never experienced that before, so I thought it was pretty cool.

As previously mentioned, in Dublin I stayed at a ultra modern and trendy mega hostel. In Belfast I stayed in a really small hostel, and it was by far the quirkiest of the ones I've visited. But it also had the best staff and by far the most personal service of any hostel I've stayed at. There was one 6 bed room that was their all female room and I met some of the nicest women during the two nights that I stayed in that room.

One of the cool things about this hostel was the fact that you could see Queen's University across the street. The first thing I did was wonder around the campus a bit and then took a nice long walk with my iPod through the  bordering Belfast Botanic Gardens, which was absolutely stunning. I was not in a picture taking mood that day, so I'm afraid I don't have any good pictures that show the true beauty of the place.

My original plan had been to go to the Titanic Museum since I'd heard such good things about it, but due to the distance from my hostel and the closing time of the museum, the manager of the hostel recommended skipping it in order to fit in some other things instead. I'm glad that I took the time to leisurely enjoy the garden because I ended up loving it. On the edge of the Botanic Gardens is the Ulster Museum, which is an awesome museum with a ton of different exhibits and displays. Like most UK museums it was free, and the layout was pretty cool. The entire museum was designed to be taken in from top to bottom and you rotated around and down in a circular route.
 
Despite not being a museum person, I spent quite a bit of time wondering around in this one.
By far the coolest thing about the Ulster Museum was the fact that I learned about the history of Ireland and the history of Northern Ireland. More importantly, I understood the history of the conflict between the two. One of the exhibits, The Troubles, was specifically about that and had an almost eerie feel to it. It gave me a similar feeling to the one I had during the last part of my time at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.

What hit me more than anything else was that so many of the dates on the displays were during my lifetime. These events were recent history... and that caught me off guard for some reason.

There were multiple times while I was in Europe where I would see a TV turned to a news station and there would be happenings from the US on there. It always surprised me how in tune other countries are to what's going on in America. Those were always a great reminder to me to pay attention to what was going on in the country that I was in, which I think can be one of the coolest parts about experiencing a new country.

As I was walking back to my hostel after visiting the museum I came across a row of townhouses with painted doors that were almost in Awana order, so of course I Instagrammed it.

I also wondered around in downtown Belfast and explored the shopping. For some reason I found it highly amusing that they had a Pound World. In our terms that would be Everything $1.5!

 After dinner I asked the manager at my hostel for recommendations for a pub with real Irish music. I went to a place called Fibber Maggees, and while it was authentically Irish, the live music just didn't compare to the band I'd gotten to listen to in Galway. I guess now I'm picky about my Irish music.

The second day of my stay in Belfast consisted of me taking a bus tour in order to get to see some of the countryside. Sadly this bus tour was a lot more packed than the two I did in Galway and half of the bus seemed to be a group traveling together who didn't seem to want to talk to anyone outside of their group. Boo.

But nonetheless, I took the opportunity to soak up the beautiful Irish countryside since I knew this was my last day in the country.

One of our stops was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which I enjoyed quite a bit and I only found it a tiny bit unnerving. The steps you take to get down to the rope bridge scared me more than the bridge itself.

See those little people out there in the distance? That's where you end up once you go across the rope bridge. It was quite a hike from the parking area.

I was out on the little "island" enjoying looking around and taking pictures for about three minutes before it started to pour. Irish weather at it's finest. This was the day that I found out that my new jacket was water resistant, not waterPROOF. Yes, there's a huge difference. As I was making the trek back to the gift shop and parking area I could feel the water soaking through my shirt and pretty soon I was soaked through.

 

 

When we stopped for lunch I ended up eating with a few tourists from my bus who were studying in Dublin. They were all from the US doing a study abroad program for a year and while they were there they wanted to see more of Ireland, so they'd decided to spend the weekend in Belfast. We all commiserated over our wet jeans and lack of a change of clothes while they told me about the program they were doing.

The main stop of the tour was the Giant's Causeway. There's an Irish story about a giant that gave the place the name it has now, but basically it's a bunch of basalt columns that are a result of volcanic activity. Before going I didn't understand why it was such a noted place to visit, but after going I realized how cool it was. It's definitely unique and I can't think of another place quite like it.

And the best way to dry out soaking wet jeans? High speed wind! It was crazy windy while we were at the causeway and by the time I ended up going inside the tourist center at the end my jeans had dried out from the wind. It was quite a hike in order to see everything, so I spent plenty of time in the wind.

I ended my last day in Ireland by picking up a pizza on my way back to the hostel and enjoyed hanging out with some people in the dining room and then with some of the girls up in our room later that night.

I had pizza in each of the countries I visited on this trip and the pepperoni always tasted different. In England it tasted like ham, in Scotland it tasted like a mix of spices, and in Ireland it just tasted sweet. Now it's my goal to try pepperoni pizza in more European countries just to see what it tastes like.

{England} Mind The Gap

I looked at my calendar today and realized that I arrived home from my Europe trip over a month ago. It feels like it was just yesterday but at the same time I feel like a year's worth of stuff has happened since then. I had intended to blog about the trip either during the trip or right after, but that obviously didn't happen. But nonetheless, here we go...

I have to admit that going into my trip that England was actually the least exciting for me of the three (technically four) countries that I was going to visit. I knew I would enjoy seeing London, but I saw it as something basic that you really should do on your first trip to Europe. It wasn't something that I was giddy excited about. Little did I know that I was going to fall in love with British culture and just London in general. It's an amazing city with an endless list of things to do and lots of fun quirks. Even though they speak English like us, British English uses fun words in place of some of ours and I find those differences amusing. I also found the stereotypes about Londoners being reserved and unfriendly to be largely inaccurate. It didn't hurt that every single guy had a hot British accent, since you can't really go wrong with that.

I spent four and a half days in England, about half of which I actually spent in London itself.

Some of the highlights and/or things I did in London itself were:

(click on pictures to see them larger)

The Tube - I loved it! I've decided that living in a city with mass transit is something that I need to make happen at some point in my lifetime. I love figuring out the best way to get from point A to point B, I love maps, and I loved spending a lot of time walking around a city instead of driving. It's no wonder that a lot of Londoners are quite slim.

 

A bike tour - I wanted to find something to help me stay awake that first day when I arrived in London. My sister went to Edinburgh for 24 hours, so I was on my own as far as keeping myself awake. The night before I the trip I stumbled upon the idea to take a bike tour and I'm so incredibly glad that I did.
It was a "night tour" (however, it wasn't dark until after 10 PM) that covered most of the major sites south of the Thames. I loved exploring the city on bike (left side of the road anyone?), the tour guide was awesome, and it was just me and a family of four so it practically a personal tour. It was a fantastic way to orient myself with the area (my hostel was by the London Bridge) while also keeping me awake. Plus, the tour ended with a stop at a local pub where I got to have my first beer in Europe. It was a house ale that was utterly fantastic and I'm incredibly bummed that I can't get it again.


Big Ben - Of course I had to go see him. I got some better shots of just Big Ben, but this is one of the only decent shots I got that actually has me in the picture.






Speaking of classic pictures...

Continuing on...

British Museum - I've concluded that I'm not much of a museum person. As much as I can appreciate the fact that this museum has some pretty awesome stuff in it, I was over it in about five minutes. The wall to wall people didn't help matters either.

Science Museum - However, I did greatly enjoy the Science Musuem. I guess it's just the engineer in me. The Google exhibit in the basement was fun, so make sure to check that out if you go.








Buckingham Palace - I happened to accidentally end up around Buckingham Palace about 20 minutes before the changing of the guards, so I decided to stick around and watch. I ended up squeezing into a front row spot when someone left, but it was on the side that seems to be further away from most of the action. While it's fun to be able to say that I've seen the changing of the guards, I actually left partway through it because I got bored. And then I couldn't cross the street to get back to the Tube station because of course that was when the horse procession went down the street. But it is cool to be able to say that I've seen it. One more touristy thing that I can check off!

Thames River - There were multiple times during the trip where I got to walk (or bike!) along the Thames and I loved it every time. When I go back to London I want to rent a bike and just bike along the Thames for a good long bit of time. You can see some major landmarks along the way, not to mention that at night you see all of the locals hanging out at various pubs and you feel like you get a true idea of what life is like in central London for the locals.

 

Kensington Palace - I was trying to avoid doing too many things with entrance fees since there are so many free things to do in London, but I'm glad that I went ahead and paid for this one. I felt like it was a deep dive into the royal history of England. The garden was beautiful!

 

Hyde Park - One thing that I wish I had spent more time exploring while in London were the parks since they seem to have so many amazing ones. I only got a small taste of Hyde Park, but it was fantastic. Next time I'm in London I want to rent one of the bikes and just spend a couple of hours exploring around Hyde Park.

 


Westminster - I had intended to actually go inside of Westminster, but as things turned out it ended up only being something we stopped by briefly. Someday when I go back I want to see the inside of it, since I'm sure it's as stunning inside as it was on the outside.





More about the rest of my time in England to come soon!

Oh Traveling (and a prayer request)

The heavens declare the glory of God,  

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 

Psalm 19:1

I love to travel. There’s something about exploring a new city that just excites me to no end. I’m not sure if a love of traveling is something that God instills in certain people, or if maybe it’s deep down inside all of us, but I know that I love it.

I have a lot of details I can share about my trip to the UK. Places I went, things I enjoyed, memories I now have. I also have hundreds of pictures from the trip. But what’s sticking out to me right now is just my awe for this world that God has created.

Galway, Ireland

See that’s part of what I love about traveling…getting a better grasp of how big this world really is. It’s so easy to live our day to day lives and lose all perspective on what’s going on outside our little bubble. And getting a better grasp of the size of this world is a very tangible way to marvel at God’s magnitude. A reminder of how small we really are in this bigger picture of life.

Galway, Ireland

And beyond just marveling at God’s magnitude there's also the reminders about the beauty that God has created for us. Most of the time I visit cities within the US and don’t get to stray far outside of them. While I was in the UK I got a chance to see some countryside, and not just boring countryside, I saw gorgeous countryside. How anyone can go to the west coast of Ireland and not believe in a Creator is beyond my level of comprehension.
I take for granted a lot of the beauty in my home state because I've lived here for so long. Getting to see a greener version of God's beauty left me with a renewed awe for the gifts God has given us in nature.

Northern Ireland

Since I use this blog as a scrapbook of sorts, there will probably be numerous posts coming in the near future with more details of my trip. Right now I’m still a bit in awe of how lucky I am to have gotten to take this trip at all, and how thankful I am that I have the memories I now have.

Scotland

On a lower note, in true Mandy fashion I managed to get sick on my trip. Long story short, I was fighting what I thought was a cold for the second half of my trip. Instead of getting better after I got home, I got worse (probably largely due to spending over 18 hours traveling) and now also have some sort of funky eye infection going on. With my Dr's office being closed for the holiday weekend I now have the option of waiting for Monday or going to urgent care if I feel like I need a prescription sooner.
This summer has been hands down the busiest summer of my life, and the next three weeks are going to be a major part of that. I have a lot going on with ministries that I'm involved in, plus numerous things going on in my personal life, not to mention lots of things to get done at work. The next three weeks are going to be a lot to handle regardless of whatever my body is fighting right now, but this just throws a wrench into the whole equation. I'm praying for a quick recovery whether it comes from my body finally kicking this thing on it's own, or from my Dr being able to prescribe something to do the trick.
And while my energy level is low right now, I'm still beyond excited to see what God has in store for the rest of this summer! A big thanks to everyone who has been so encouraging this summer. I love all of you and I'm looking forward to having more time to just chill with all of you again soon!

Philadelphia/Baltimore - Part 2

You can read Part 1 here.

Day 3 of my trip started out with sleeping in a little bit (hey, this was a vacation after all) before packing up my stuff and getting ready to meet up with my friend who was driving up from Baltimore. Danny still drives the same Honda Civic that he's had since before he and I became friends in college. That little thing is still going...gotta love those Civics. Except for the fact that the charger thing didn't work, which is no bueno when you have a smartphone, but such is life.

I'm a fan of visiting colleges when I go to different cities, and visiting Penn was my first time visiting an Ivy league school. I liked the campus and the buildings were gorgeous. One thing that I've learned is that I enjoy visiting colleges that have a large student union or general "hub" on campus rather than ones with spread out dining halls and all inclusive living areas. Since Penn didn't have a main student union (that we found) it didn't really feel like we got a feel for what life is like on campus.

 
Now...when in Philadelphia what else do you do for lunch besides go get a cheesesteak? We went to the famous Pat's/Geno's location but went to Pat's based on a recommendation. And I have to say, I'm thankful that I wasn't driving and that Danny was. I love walking around Philly, and I love road trip driving, but I wouldn't ever want to drive those streets.

 
The cheesesteak was quite tasty, and I loved the fries even more. This time around I got american cheese instead of "wiz" and I think I like that way a lot better. I'm officially a cheesesteak fan.

 
Next up on the agenda was visiting Eastern State Penitentiary. I read about it on Trip Advisor and I'd already seen it from the tour bus, so that's how I came across the idea. I'm really glad we went, it was an interesting place to visit that had a lot of history but was definitely unique from any of the other sights in Philly.

At this point in the day you could see the gray clouds arriving. Rain was imminent. We used my dying phone to locate a Starbucks and went there to charge my phone for a bit while we debated whether or not the Phillies game was going to get rained out. Those of you who have already read my stadium update post know how this story turns out.

 

Sunday was spent in Baltimore and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. After going to Danny's church, and a stop at Five Guys for lunch, we went to our second baseball stadium in 24 hours. Perfect day for a baseball game and a perfect end to a great trip!

Philadelphia - Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I went on a short trip to the east coast. I absolutely love traveling, and it's without a doubt one of my favorite things to do. I also really enjoy seeing some of the cities that involve our nation's history. Washington DC is still up there as one of my favorite cities, so getting to go to Philadelphia was exciting for me. And of course, it had a baseball stadium that I needed to see, so that was another perk.
What I loved most about Philly was the fact that it's a very walkable city. I thought I was going to have to take the subway quite a bit and that a couple of sites might have been too far away, but I quickly found that walking was the best way to get around. I was also lucky enough to have a hotel that was right across the street from the capitol building and consequently it close to pretty much everything.  I enjoyed exploring the different streets and feel like I had a pretty good grasp of the central part of the city by the time I left.

Thursday
I got into Philly in the early evening and knew that I wasn't going to be able to do much on that day. Thankfully, I discovered the idea of doing a night bus tour and booked that before I left (it departed from right outside my hotel too, an extra bonus). Picture a double decker bus with all of us sitting on top. It was an hour and a half of driving around seeing all the sites in the city with a great tour guide. I loved it and highly recommend that you start with a bus tour if you ever visit Philly. It gives you a lay of the land and it helps you realize what you care about coming back to see versus what you're just happy to have seen from the bus.

A shot of my hotel that I took as we drove by it

And of course, it may have been 11 o'clock at night in Philly, but my body thought it was 8 PM and that I still had four hours before I was supposed to go to bed. So what does a girl in that situation do? She finds a cookie shop that's open all night, of course!

Friday
Friday was my big exploring day. I had my timed ticket to see Independence Hall, so I did that in the morning. On my way I stopped at Reading Terminal Market to look around and grab some breakfast. The market was one of my favorite places and I highly recommend it. Sadly, I didn't get to try any food from the famous Dinic's because they closed at 6 PM and I didn't realize that so that I would get back over there in time for dinner. Oh well.
I toured Independence Hall and the Congress building, both interesting. I also checked out the Liberty Bell and got the obligatory picture. The first person I asked to take the picture apparently didn't realize that I'd want both myself AND the bell in the picture. *sigh* I had someone else take another  picture which is why I also have a shot from the other side of the bell.

I spent the rest of the day exploring some of the old site streets in that area and had fun just wondering around. I went to a place called Jim's Steaks to get a cheesesteak because it was highly recommended online. I got it with "wiz" because I know it's the way you're supposed to try a cheesesteak. The wiz wasn't as disgusting as I thought and as a whole it was pretty tasty. The highlight of that for me was sharing a table with an older couple and getting to chat with them. They were a lot of fun and were on their way to visit their kids and grandkids in New Jersey. When I saw them walking away from the place they were holding hands, which always makes me happy to see old couples doing.

The rest of the day was fairly random. I went to Elfreth's alley, which is the oldest inhabited residencial block in America. What was pretty crazy to me was that there was both a place for rent and a place for sale. I looked it up online and it's going for an outrageous price.

I also walked by the Betsy Ross house and Chinatown on my way back to my hotel (for a nap of course, because if you have a hotel within walking distance of everywhere you want to go, why wouldn't you take an afternoon nap?).

I enjoyed all the random parks that I came across and all of the cool brick buildings that are everywhere in Philadelphia. It's really a change of pace from what I see in Phoenix all the time and that's why I love exploring new cities.

This is getting long, so I'm going to break the last two days into a separate blog post. Part 2 coming soon!